October Chill
by Cobalt-eyed Angel
Summary: COMPLETE Sakura is soon going to die from the same tumor her mother died from. She meets a boy, who is actually a ghost. And becomes close to him. What's going to happen? SS. R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note- Hey guys! (And girls!) I just felt like I HAD to write this. It's pretty short, only a few chapters. I do not own CCS or any of the characters in it. I got this idea from a short story in the book Being Dead. And I don't own that either. By the way, this story takes place in America, I just used Tomoeda, cause well...hey- it's my story I don't have to make up a reason for what I do! LOL. Syao's a bit OOC but...Oh well. Thanks! R&R.  
  
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October Chill  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
The worst part of dying, Sakura thought, was knowing it was coming. Which was ridiculous, she knew: EVERYONE would die, eventually. Everyone KNEW it was coming. Eventually.  
  
It was that EVENTUALLY that made all that difference in the world.  
  
Not every sixteen-year-old knew she wouldn't see seventeen. Not everyone had gone through test after painful test only to have her doctor tell her, "From now on, we'll concentrate on keeping you comfortable."  
  
Still, for the moment Sakura WAS comfortable. Sakura's father, who always tried to find something positive about everything, pointed out that at least Sakura hadn't had to go through chemotherapy and lose her auburn locks. It was hard to find a whole lot of comfort in that, but Sakura supposed she should be grateful that she didn't look obviously sick. Because the last thing she wanted were people knowing.  
  
And people didn't know. Except for her family, of course. And the doctor. And the doctor's staff. And the people at the support group her father and brother had forced her to join. Not that she had any plans to go back THERE if whining and sulking could get her out of it. The only good thing about support group was they had finally convinced her father that hovering was bad.  
  
But in any case, at least she didn't have people on the street giving her that pitying look she'd seen them give to the other kids who went to the same oncologist, with their bald heads, and the circle under their eyes, and their arms all bruised from the injections and the IVs.  
  
SEE, Sakura told herself, you have a lot to be thankful for. So far there was no pain, or nothing the medication couldn't handle, anyway. And she still had her hair. And her school friends and her neighbors didn't know about the inoperable tumor growing in her head. And...  
  
Sakura tried to think of more things to be thankful for.  
  
And she had this weekend job she loved in the recreated historic village at Tomoeda Valley Park. And she'd be able to finish the season out, which was good. No need for lies or awkward explanations. She'd work until winter break with nobody suspecting anything, and by the time spring came around, she'd be dead. 'Did you hear,' she could imagine the regulars saying- Takashi and Chiharu and Naoko and a couple of the others-'that little high school girl who worked over the summer and on weekends died.'  
  
Just so long as she didn't have to be the one to tell them. She sincerely hoped she would be dead by spring, rather than lingering in a state not quite dead or alive.  
  
So, what she DIDN'T have was a reason to be feeling sorry for herself. Well, no more than usual. What she DIDN'T have was a reason to be crying.  
  
But here she was, sitting at one of the round table at Tiluke Spa Tavern, hoping that she could stop crying before the first busload of tourists came up the gravel path.  
  
Just STOP IT, she told herself, using the corner of her reproduction colonial serving-girl shawl to wipe her eyes. She was faced away from the door, and the fire Takashi had started in the hearth wasn't really going yet, so her chest and face were warm, and her back and arms goose bumpy with the cold of an October morning in Tomoeda. Any minute now people would arrive- - day-camp kids with construction-paper name tags pinned to their jackets, Japanese businessmen bearing cameras, families who preferred the cold of off-season to the summer crowds- - expecting the warm cider, which was all this particular tavern served.  
  
The wood floor creaked behind her, and she felt a cold draft on the back of her neck, though the fire in the grate didn't gutter and she hadn't heard the front door give its characteristic squeal.  
  
Hurriedly Sakura wiped the back of her hand across her cheeks, as though brushing wisps of hair that had gotten loose from the bun under her colonial cap. She pretended to wipe a smudge on the table with her apron. If Mr. Kohako found out that customers were coming in before she was prepared, she would be in for another of his verisimilitude(A/N- LOL. Ask my friend what that means. She said it would fit there, it's one of my spelling words I had to use somewhere this week. LOL.) Lectures.  
  
"There," she said, stepping back from the table as though examining it. "That's better." She rubbed her arms. "Ooo, a bit brisk today, isn't it?" Finally she turned to see who had entered.  
  
Not a sightseer after all. He was in a colonial costume; that was the first thing she noticed, his oversized, drop-shouldered shirt that put him in the same 1750 to 1790 era she was supposed to represent, though she had never seen him before. Maybe he was subbing for someone.  
  
He even had his hair long enough to be bound at the nape of his neck, which the board of trustees didn't insist on, knowing that most of the men were part-timers whose regular employers might disapprove of a pigtail. Sakura decided this guy probably wasn't employed. He couldn't have been ore than a year or two older than Sakura, so he was probably a student, maybe high school, maybe college. Most of the students left after the summer.  
  
The second thing she noticed was that was exceptionally good-looking, in a clear-skinned, intense-eyed manner. Noticing that made her feel uncomfortable. Things being as they were, how this guy looked was none of her business.  
  
"Yes?" she said, because the young man had said nothing. And she turned her back to him because her eyes were beginning to overflow again.  
  
"Are you..." His voice was strained, as though he wasn't used to it. "Is there anything..."  
  
Oh, damn, he'd realized she'd been crying. "Isn't there something you're supposed to be doing?" she snapped, embarrassed. Good; nothing was wrong with that. Frighten him off.  
  
"I'm sorry," he said. There was pain in that apology, and Sakura knew she had put it there. He'd probably fought with himself, with his inclination(A/N- another spelling word!! LOL.) not to get involved, and she'd gone and bitten his head off. There's maintaining your privacy, she told herself, and then there's being just plain mean.  
  
"Look." She turned back to him. "I'm the one who should-"  
  
He'd taken a step away. "I'm sorry," he repeated, almost a whisper. She'd put him in panic; she could see it in those wide eyes. That gave her a wretched(A/N- can u guess what it is? Yep spelling word!) feeling, and she started, "Don't-"  
  
He shook his head. "I'm sorry." He stepped back.  
  
And dissolved into thin air.  
  
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Author's Note- Hey! Pretty good right? I think so. My friend Maddison edited it, isn't she great? LOL. I told her she should write her own stories and get a penname, then she'd have a zillion reviews but she said (and I quote. LOL) "Anything I write I'm going to publish in a book, why waste my time with ff.net?" Poooooooor FF. net!! Don't worry I love you! LOL. Maddi can be a bit...eh...snobbish. LOL. (oh, if she's reading this. You know I love you! Hehe) Anyways next chapter coming really, really soon hopefully. 


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note- Hey! I'm back. Yeah, Maddison's here. LOL. I got this one up pretty fast, eh? Oh, I have a HUGE favor to ask. It's not hard. I just NEED the names of all Syaoran's sisters, which would help another fic of mine along soooo much! Please and Thank you! (Shoot out to my favorite authors: Kintora- PLEASE update ur two new fics soon!! Thanks! ^^. Little Wolf Lover- Please don't stop writing! You're so GOOD at it!) Anyways On wit da fic!!  
  
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October Chill  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
By closing time Sakura had talked herself into and out of a variety of rationalizations several times over. But each of those rationalizations assumed one of two things, and since Sakura refused to believe she was hallucinating- brain tumor or not- she had to assume she had seen some sort of ghost.  
  
She put out the DISPLAY CLOSED sign, and latched the door and windows from the inside against any stranglers, then she banked down the fire. She wiped down the tables, washed the last batch of mugs, checked the supply of cider, and filled out daily-attendance-estimate forms. The same as she did everyday she worked here. Takashi would be by later, as he was every day, to check that all the candles and cooking fires were truly out.  
  
She could hear the other demonstrators and tour guides calling good night to one another outside, and the crunch of gravel carried in the crisp air as they walked down the path to the covered toll bridge that marked the entrance of the main exhibit area.  
  
To the west were several hundred acres of dense wooded area- owned by the museum and slated for development as more historic buildings were moved here from sites all along the eastern seaboard. Sakura knew from experience that the trees' shadows would be long and gloomy already, reaching the Shaker meetinghouse across the commons from the tavern. Everything as it should be. Everything as it had always been, until today.  
  
Inside the tavern, she was more aware of the smoky smell now than she'd been when the fire had actually been burning. Already her breath was visible in the chill late-afternoon air. All that was left was to douse the candles and go meet her father in the parking lot. Then it was another evening of just her and her father and brother pretending everything was fine. Same as all other days.  
  
And yet...And yet...The doubts and questions she had managed to block during her busyness of providing mulled cider and historical information and period atmosphere now rushed to fill the void inactivity(A/N- another spelling word!! ^^) created.  
  
"Hello," she called, very softly, embarrassed even though there was no one to witness her making a fool of herself. "Are you still there? I'm..."  
  
This was ridiculous. If Tomoyo, who demonstrated spinning and weaving in the log cabin, happened to stop by on her way out as she sometimes did, and found Sakura at this...  
  
Tomoyo would tell her ghosts are silly.  
  
But what was a handsome young man with distress in his eyes, who dressed in colonial garb(A/N- can u guess what it is? LOL) and dissolved in thin air?  
  
"I'm sorry I snapped at you," she told the air. "You startled me; that's all. Please come back."  
  
Now, what had she gone and done that for?  
  
"Hello? Whoever you are? Are you still there?"  
  
Facing the door she felt the draft from behind her, from within the room. "I'm-"  
  
Despite herself she gasped at the sound of his voice. She whirled to face him.  
  
"Don't..." he pleaded. Already he was beginning to shimmer at the edges, the flames from the candles on the mantel behind him faintly visible through his torso. "I'm sorry," he assured her. "I meant no harm."  
  
"Wait!" she cried. "Don't go!"  
  
He didn't become any more solid, but at least he didn't disappear.  
  
"You startled me," she repeated. My Kami-sama, she was talking to someone she could see right through. She backed into the table. She hadn't truly expected him to return. Now what?  
  
His face was pale between his chestnut brown hair and intense amber eyes. That...may have been his normal coloring. But he looked...  
  
He looked, she realized, at least as scared of her as she was of him.  
  
She wasn't used to having people scared of her.  
  
"I'm sorry," She said again. "Please forgive me." The old-fashioned clothes they both wore encouraged a more formal speech.  
  
The boy seemed to gulp.  
  
(Could ghosts gulp?) She forced a smile. "Who are you?"  
  
He looked desperate for something to be doing with his hands. "Syaoran." He cleared his throat. "Syaoran Li."  
  
Instinctively she extended her hand as she said, "My name's Sakura Kinomoto."  
  
He hesitated, wiped his hands on his breeches, (A/N- Another spelling word! Ok, Srry, I'll stop interrupting...) then reached out also.  
  
Their hands missed.  
  
Or rather, they didn't.  
  
Her hand seemed to pass through cold thick air. She shuddered.  
  
As did he. He stepped back, hugging himself as if for warmth. "What are you?" he asked.  
  
"What am I?" she echoed, incredulous, thinking, 'Oh, no. Don't tell me he doesn't even know he's a ghost.'  
  
But he didn't look like a ghost, not anymore. He had fully materialized, or solidified,(A/N- nope, I won't say anything...wait-aren't I right now? Damn...) or whatever it was that ghosts do when you can't see the wallpaper behind them anymore.  
  
His white linen shirt had no bloodstains; nor, except for appearing paler than she'd expect for a man dressed like an eighteenth-century farmer, did he bear any obvious signs of violence or disease. Not like horror-show ghouls. What had killed him?  
  
After stepping away from her, he had put out a hand to steady himself, a hand which now solidly gripped the back of one of the tavern chairs. He looked, Sakura had to admit to herself, like a man who had just seen a ghost.  
  
"I work here," she told him. She sat down on the nearest chair, to prove to him, that she was as substantial as he was. "How did you get here?"  
  
The boy- Syaoran -thought about that for a moment. "I don't know," he said vaguely, glancing round the room as though it wasn't at all familiar. Then he looked straight at her and repeated, "I don't know. What is this place?"  
  
Haunting- and he didn't even know where? "The Tiluke Spa Tavern."  
  
"Tiluke Spa..." He pulled around the chair he'd been holding and straddled it, facing her, close enough to...to touch. He folded his arms over the back of the chair. "I'm from Waterville," he said. "Well, not exactly the town. My family owns acres and acres that have farms. How did I get to be in Tiluke Spa?"  
  
She shook her head hopelessly. He looked so confused, so venerable. "Tiluke Spa's not that far from Waterville," she offered. She didn't have the heart to tell him that the tavern was no longer in Tomoeda but had been transported by truck and relocated halfway across city.  
  
"A day away," he said, and it still would be, if you traveled by horse today. Then more to himself, he added, "How did I lose a whole day?"  
  
Distressed, Sakura put her hand to her mouth, then saw that Syaoran was watching her every move. She folded her hands on the table in front of her.  
  
Never taking his eyes away from hers, Syaoran reached across the table.  
  
She saw that his hands were clean, even under the nails. (A/N- Sakura's so weird, why would you look at a ghost's hands??? LOL.) The fingers were long and slender, though the palms were somewhat calloused. She could see all those details. And then again she felt the cold, almost tangible...something...as his hand passed through hers.  
  
Syaoran wrapped his arms around the chair back. "I think," he said, without looking directly at her, "that I may have died."  
  
And what could she answer to that?  
  
Maybe this was nature's way of telling her to stop feeling sorry for herself. At least she wasn't dead yet. At least she wasn't dead and just finding out about it.  
  
"What day is today?" he asked.  
  
"October twenty-fourth," She answered, and he closed his eyes. She hesitated, then finished: "In the year two thousand-four."  
  
His lips moved slightly, as though he might have whispered a prayer or oath. Or maybe he was doing math. Not that it would require math to see that he was at least two centuries away from home.  
  
Then he looked at her again, swallowed hard, and said, "Well. I guess the chances were always pretty good that I'd die before two thousand-four."  
  
'Don't', she mentally begged him. 'Don't be like that.' "What..." She had to clear her throat and start again. "What is the last date you...remember?"  
  
"April." Again, he was the one to look away. "April thirtieth, seventeen seventy-five."  
  
That was after the battles of Lexington and Concord. (A/N- See! History really does pay off! LOL)  
  
Too bad that by the time she had started working here, she wasn't taking American History anymore. She finally had all the dates and details down cold. Had there been fighting that early at Waterville? He probably was a soldier in the first days of the American Revolution. Should she tell him? She swallowed hard and asked, "And the last thing you remember, were you in Waterville, at the farm?"  
  
"Yes. No." He appeared to suddenly noticed that his breath left no trail of vapor in the chill air as her's did. He held his palm a few inches from his mouth and breathed into it. Seeing her watching him, he got up abruptly, scraping the chair across the slats of the wooden floor. "I don't remember." Absently he rubbed the base of his collarbone, showing above the open neck of his shirt. "It almost seems-"  
  
The tavern door rattled, then someone banged on it. "Yo!" Takashi's voice called. "Sakura. Still in there?"  
  
Sakura had instinctively turned at the noise, but when she looked back, she was alone in the room. It had gotten quite dark, with only the candles on the mantel, though so gradually she hadn't noticed. She should confide in Takashi, she thought, who was one of her good friend's boyfriend and a good friend to her, and he believed anything.  
  
Instead she said, "In a minute, Takashi." She whispered, "Syaoran?" and peered into the corners, though she knew that wasn't where he had gone. 'How sad,' she thought, 'How very, very sad.'  
  
"Sakura," Takashi called, "no over time for winter hours."  
  
Which was a joke because- like most of them- she was a volunteer and didn't get paid at all.  
  
"Right," she said. She pulled her shawl tight around her slim shoulders as she fumbled with the door latch, her fingers clumsy with the cold.  
  
She hadn't noticed that, either.  
  
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Author's Note- Wheeeh, Done! That was pretty long, eh? Whelps I probably won't be able to update this or any of my other fics since I'm spending a week with my friend while my parents are in Pennsylvania. So keep reading this and my other fics over till I do get back! LOL. Don't forget to R&R! Please and Thank you! ~Cobalt-eyedAngel 


	3. Chapter 3

Author's Note- Thanks for the great reviews, I'll be leaving soon and be back sometime Sunday night, so let's just see how many chapters we can get up. No Maddison today, so we'll see how we do. Wish me luck! ^^. Oh, and please don't forget I WOULD REALLY LIKE THEN NAMES OF SYAORAN'S SISTERS. Thanks.  
  
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October Chill  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
At home Sakura started to tell her father and brother about what had happened-several times she started, then couldn't find the right words.  
  
Finally she blurted it out as they sat watching some inane game show on TV. The TV was always on lately. Nobody liked the silence anymore. In the middle of the game's final round, Sakura said, "I met a ghost today."  
  
She saw her brother stiffen, but her father went for playing it light. "Oh, yes?" he asked. "Worked the Octagon House?" The Octagon House was the only building in the museum reported to be haunted-and those reports were seriously frowned upon by the management. Still, those who worked there insisted that tools would disappear only to be relocated the following day. Sakura had always found it hard to understand why someone would cross the boundary between life and death just to borrow a carpenter's plumb or to play hide-and-seek with Eunice Goungo's reading glasses.  
  
"I was at the tavern," she told him. She'd been assigned there regularly since early summer.  
  
"Ah! More and more interesting. Some bold pirate, come to dig up his treasure from under the barroom floor?" He ran his fingers up and down her arm to simulate goose bumps.  
  
She didn't like being tickled. Hadn't since she'd been about five. Surely after all these years he must have noticed. But in many ways her father and brother seemed to be trying to go back to the more carefree time of her childhood, presenting her with gifts of stuffed animals and talking to her as though she were barely able to reason. She folded her arms across her chest. "Pirates in Tiluke Spa?" she asked.  
  
"Hmm. Maybe a more recent ghost. Got it. That old lady who choked on the cider last month. She only seemed to recover but went home and died." Sakura's brother, Touya, looked ready to strangle him, but he was apparently oblivious. He finished, "And now she's come back to haunt you because it's all your fault."  
  
"Not funny," Her brother said between clenched teeth. Did she think she was a ventriloquist, Sakura wondered, and that they wouldn't be able to guess who had spoken even though there was only three of them in the room?  
  
"It wasn't a little lady," Sakura said. "It was a young man from seventeen seventy-five."  
  
Touya glared at the thought of a young man talking to his sister, ghost or not.  
  
"Can't be that young," her father reasoned. "If he's from seventeen seventy- five, he's got to be at least two hundred and twenty five years old."  
  
"He only looked about seventeen or eighteen," Sakura said.  
  
Her brother got up and walked out of the room.  
  
"What?" Her father called his son.  
  
"Unresolved issues," Sakura said. 'Unresolved issues' was one of the support group's favorite terms. She got up, too, but headed in the opposite direction.  
  
"What'd I say?" Her father called after her.  
  
On TV the people from the show were waving to the camera as the closing music played.  
  
"I never know what to say anymore," Her father complained to the screen.  
  
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Author's Note- Yeah, I know. It's short, sorry. R&R!! 


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note- Here's another short chapter. I REALLY NEED Syaoran's sister's names. It would help me other fic along really really nicely. So PLEASE someone tell me them in a review. Thanks.  
  
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October Chill  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
Winter hours – what the staff at Tomoeda Valley Museum called winter hours - were actually fall and spring hours: 9:30 to 4:30, Saturdays and Sundays only. There were no real winter hours because after the Harvest Festival on the last weekend of October, the museum locked its doors until mid-April.  
  
Sakura had met her ghost the second to last Sunday in October.  
  
'What difference does that make?' she asked herself. But it did make a difference.  
  
Monday morning, after her father and brother had left for work and before her school bus came, she tried calling out to Syaoran Li, but he didn't come. He must somehow be linked with the tavern, she reasoned – even if he hadn't recognized the tavern or known why he was there.  
  
She had hoped that someone who could travel freely through time would have no difficulty with the five-mile journey between the museum and her home. 'How awful,' she thought, 'to be so young and dead.'  
  
But she'd met kids who were younger who were going to be dead soon. SHE was going to be dead soon. How awful, she amended her thought, to be so young and lost and frightened and alone. To be dead and not even know how.  
  
But there was more to it than that.  
  
She didn't talk to anybody at school about what had happened at the museum. She hadn't told any of them about her illness, and she no longer talked to them about anything important – if she ever had. And if she'd ever been close to any of them before, she couldn't remember it. They were background noise, like the TV.  
  
They didn't avoid her; they included her in their conversations, but more and more she found herself losing track of what they were saying. The first many times that this happened, somebody would laughingly catch her up on what she'd missed. But then the laughter stopped. And lately they just talked around her. So, these were not the people to confide in, to tell about seeing a ghost.  
  
After school, despite telling herself several times that she was being foolish, she rode her bicycle to the museum. It was locked, of course, as she'd known it would be. But she stood in the deserted parking lot and called Syaoran Li's name.  
  
She waited, her hands jammed into the pockets of her sweater as the wind pushed against her back, whipping her hair – the hair she was fortunate she hadn't lost to chemo – about her face.  
  
Bright orange pamphlets from the museum flapped against the fence, along with the leaves, which had lost all their happy colors and were now just brown and brittle debris.  
  
Dead. Dead leaves.  
  
When she got cold enough, she got on her bike and peddled the long way home.  
  
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Author's Note- Hey! Yessshh, it's short. Sorry, the next one will hopefully be longer. Hey, at least I updated soon, right? Whelps, R&R! Thanks!  
  
Babybluestarangel- hey, Srry, so long to answer ur question. No, Sakura's not really that scared of ghosts. She would be, she's just not herself after finding out she's going to die. Notice that she doesn't have any bright smiles? Yeah, thanks for reviewing! 


	5. Chapter 5

Author's Note- This is the last chapter for today...Sad day. LOL. Kind of short, sorry. REMINDER- does anyone know Syao's sisters names ? _ ? Hehe. Syaoran will talk with Sakura again...finally. LOL. R&R!  
  
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October Chill  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
Saturday morning Sakura hoped to get to the museum village early, to give herself extra time before she had to open the tavern. But her brother wanted to talk.  
  
"Is everything all right, Kaijuu?" 'kaijuu' was her pet name Touya had given her when she was younger, she hated it. She'd been asking her brother since fourth grade to call her Sakura, and he'd been pretty good about it until recently, when he reverted back to kaijuu in a softer tone.  
  
"Yeah," Sakura said, "Fine."  
  
"You just seem so...quiet...lately. Father and I are worried."  
  
"I'm fine," Sakura repeated.  
  
"You seem to be taking more of your pain medication." Sakura shrugged. It was just a headache. But- because of where here tumor was- her brother wouldn't believe it was just a headache.  
  
Her brother said, "Because any time you want to talk..."  
  
Sakura let the unfinished sentence hang there. What could talking solve?  
  
"DO you want to talk?" her brother asked.  
  
Then, because her brother looked crushed because of the rejection, Sakura added, "It's good therapy for me."  
  
Her brother brightened at that. Support group was all for not feeling sorry for yourself. "Just don't work too hard," he said, "Don't let yourself get worn-out."  
  
In the end, by the time her brother dropped her off in front of the administration building, she was even slightly later than usual. Sakura fairly flew down the path, past the Old-Fashioned Sweet Shoppe, around the gazebo, through the covered toll bridge, past the blacksmith shop and the apothecary, to the Tiluke Spa Tavern. She slammed the door behind her and called, "Syaoran, are you there?"  
  
The air shimmered, and she was so relieved she forgot herself: She went to hug him.  
  
Syaoran stepped back, and only her arm passed coldly through his arm. "What's happened?" he asked, "What's wrong?"  
  
Her arm was numb to the elbow with cold, and she stood rubbing it, having been brought up short. "I...was just happy to see you." (A/N- Has Tomoyo would say...KAWAII! LOL. Ok, Srry)  
  
His aloofness dissolved into a smile. "I'm happy to see you too, Sakura."  
  
She said, "I kept thinking about you all week, worrying about you."  
  
The smile faltered. "All...week?"  
  
"Since the last time you were here."  
  
"It's been a week?"  
  
Sakura nodded. She could see him accept what she said without understanding why it should be so. "Syaoran," she asked, and her voice quivered, "where are you when you're not here?"  
  
He considered, then shook his head.  
  
"Why did you come here?"  
  
"You called me," he told her.  
  
"The first time?"  
  
Again he paused to consider. He repeated, more slowly, "You called me." He sat in one of the chairs and rested his elbows on the table. "I...heard you crying..."  
  
"While you were at your farm?" she prompted.  
  
"Yes. No. I don't know where I was. I heard you crying and..." He looked at her quizzically. "I knew...somehow...that you were thinking of taking your life."  
  
That was a cold draft up Sakura's back, colder even than seeing Syaoran disappears that first time. It had been a thought. On and off, when the world closed in on her, when she tired of fighting a battle she knew she could never win- it had been a thought. Rarely verbalized, certainly never acted upon, always there was an option: Wouldn't it be easier now than later?  
  
He must have been able to tell from her face that he hadn't been wrong. "And," he continued, "I thought: She can't do that. She doesn't..." He blinked, then finished in a very quiet voice. "She doesn't know what it's like being dead."  
  
Sakura sat down at the same table. Heavily. 'Not yet,' she could have said, 'I don't know yet.' Instead, she asked, "You remember now? Being dead? Dying?"  
  
"No." He rubbed his arms as though he was cold. "Don't die, Sakura."  
  
"Everybody dies eventually," she said. She ached with realization that she couldn't take his hand. He could touch his own chest, the furniture, everything but her. "It's just..." She couldn't say it. She was starting to cry again, and she sniffled, angry with herself. "It's just so pointless."  
  
Syaoran reached to wipe the tears, and the touch felt like an ice cube on her cheek. He snatched his hand back in obvious frustration. "Please, Don't...don't cry..." he started.  
  
Someone tapped at the still-closed shutter. "Ssst, Sakura," Tomoyo hissed. "Drake's coming. Better get a move on."  
  
Syaoran stood, but didn't disappear.  
  
Sakura got rid of her tears. "Yes. Almost ready," she lied. How could she have forgotten the Harvest Festival? Hayrides in the meadow, minuteman maneuvers on the green, apple bobbing in the square. All sorts of extra programs. Lots of visitors before the close down for the season. Mr. Drake would be semihysterical all weekend and breathing down everybody's neck.  
  
They could hear Tomoyo's footsteps hurrying down the path as she continued on her way.  
  
"Right," Syaoran said to Sakura. "What needs doing?"  
  
"Mugs out," Sakura said, "cider poured, shutters opened...Oh, damn!" She'd nearly tripped over a box that one of the workers had brought in some time before she arrived.  
  
Syaoran had already gone behind the bar and was getting the mugs. "What?"  
  
"Snickerdoodles."  
  
He gave her a blank look.  
  
"They're these colonial cookies-"  
  
"I know what they are," he said, sounding exasperated.  
  
"I'm supposed to make some." She started pulling supplies out of the box: ingredients, bowls, cooking utensils. The cider was provided year-round; the snickerdoodles only for special occasions, like Harvest Festival Weekend.  
  
"This is an INN," Syaoran objected.  
  
"Yes, but we don't have a license from New York Street to serve alcohol, so we serve cider and snickerdoodles instead.  
  
"New York STATE?" he repeated in amazement.  
  
She shook her head, indicating there was no time to explain, and started measuring the sugar.  
  
Syaoran opened the shutters, started the cider heating, and tossed a handful of cinnamon into the fire, which made the tavern smell as though she'd been baking for an hour. She smiled at him, and he blew her a kiss.  
  
A moment later, as the first tourist started to push open the door, he was gone.  
  
*  
  
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Author's Note- Whelps it's pretty late, so I gotta go to bed. R&R! I'll see u sometime after Sunday! Bye!!  
  
Babybluestarangel- Your reviews are so nice!! ^^. You've been asking for Syao-kun so here he is! LOL. Please keep up the nice reviews, they brighten my day!! ^^. 


	6. Chapter 6

Author's Note- I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! I missed ya'll so much! LOL. Whelps here's the next chapter! Only about 4 or 5 chapters left. I guess that's a lot. Or is that too little? LOL. Anyways let's get this party started!!  
  
October Chill  
  
Chapter 6: You remember?  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
"Why are the people who come here dressed so oddly?" Syaoran asked.  
  
Sakura, who was just closing the door behind the day's last sightseers, jumped.  
  
"I'm sorry," He said seeing her startle. He went to put a hand on her shoulder, then yanked it away as cold seeped between them. "I'm sorry," he said again. Getting that panicked look in his eyes. Again.  
  
"It's alright," she assured him, though she imagined this was what advanced frostbite felt like, and she had to work to keep the pain off her face. Doubly so now. Her head had been throbbing all afternoon from the stress of cooking, and answering the same question over and over, and remembering to smile. "Syaoran. It's all right." She had to fight her own inclination to offer a comforting hand. "Syaoran, I want to try something." She opened the tavern door. "Can you leave this building?"  
  
"I don't know." He went out onto the stoop. Then, looking back at her, he stepped onto the gravel.  
  
Almost giddy with relief, Sakura followed; and they started down the walkway, which circled the commons, away from the dark woods whose shadows grew longer daily with the approach of winter.  
  
Syaoran shook his head in amazement. "It's so changed. These buildings weren't here before."  
  
That was encouraging. "I thought you couldn't remember the Tiluke Spa Tavern?"  
  
"I" – he realized what he was saying – "can't." He got that far away look he sometimes did, as though he was listening to internal voices, or was on the verge of remembering something. "No," He said slowly. "I DO. Xiefia..."  
  
"Who?"  
  
Finally he met her eyes again. "One of my sisters, Xiefia, and I. We came to Tiluke Spa Tavern to deliver a horse my mother had sold to a man named Yumihiko Tsukumara. Why couldn't I remember that before?"  
  
"I don't know," Sakura said. "Did you deliver the horse?"  
  
He thought about it. "Yes."  
  
"And then what?"  
  
Again the hesitation. But this time Syaoran shook his head.  
  
"Did you meet Tsukumara at the tavern?"  
  
Just when she was about to give up, he said, "No. At his house."  
  
'Robbery??' she wondered. Had Tsukumara killed him for the horse? She asked, "Did he-"  
  
"We left the house," Syaoran interrupted her, but he wsa speaking slowly again, as though having trouble reconstructing what happened.  
  
"And came..." she prompted, "to the tavern?"  
  
He bit his lip and shook his head. "I don't remember."  
  
"It seems as though whatever happened must have-"  
  
"I don't remember." He had stopped and now closed his eyes as though in pain.  
  
"What is it? Syaoran?"  
  
He had taken a step back. His hand closed convulsively at the opening of his shirt, over where his heart would be. If ghosts had hearts.  
  
"Syaoran?" She was getting scared now. "It's all right," she said. "It's not important. You don't have to remember."  
  
"I can't go any farther," he whispered.  
  
She saw that they were almost at the covered bridge, which led out of the exhibition area of the museum, away from the old buildings, toward the modern. "All right," she told him. "We'll go back."  
  
"I can't" – he took another step back – "go any..." – and another.  
  
"Syaoran-"  
  
He dissolved.  
  
"-don't go," she finished in a whisper. She realized that her headache must have gone, because now it was suddenly back.  
  
Tomoyo, coming up the path from the log house, said, "Zoo day, huh? See you tomorrow."  
  
Sakura watched as Tomoyo walked past the bridge and cut across the green toward the gift shop. She hadn't seen him.  
  
She hadn't seen him.  
  
Silently Sakura followed, and it wasn't until halfway through dinner that she remembered she hadn't banked the fire in the tavern, or cleaned up at all.  
  
*  
  
*  
  
Author's Note- Are ya'll getting it now? Are you all understanding what is happening? I would tell, but I don't want to give it away. No, this is not a Sakura gets revenge for Syaoran, and she kills his killer. Or anything like that. All will become soon clear! R&R! Thanks.  
  
~Cobalt-eyedAngel 


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note- Haven't much to say, ummm. Thanks for the reviews! And uhhhh whelps let's just get this party started. LOL  
  
*  
  
*  
  
October Chill  
  
Chapter 7  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
After thinking that she would never fall asleep, Sakura was dreaming about Syaoran Li. On one level she knew she was asleep. She replayed moments with him over and over, recapturing looks, nuances: the slight catch in his voice when he stepped away from her that first time, apologizing for frightening her; the shy smile, as though he didn't do it often; the way he always seemed to be hugging himself for warmth; glancing up, for the briefest moment, before saying, "I think I may have died." She lingered, consciously, unable to let it rest.  
  
But on another level, it seemed so real-so very, real.  
  
So that when she started to fantasize, when she started to embroider what had happened and take it a step farther, she could feel her heart quicken, her breath catch. She imagined his warm breath as he came close, closer than he had ever really come. His lips touched her's, gently, lovingly. He caressed her hair, her shoulders. He told her she was beautiful, which she knew she was not. (A/N- Who is she trying to kid? LOL.)  
  
He told her, he loved her, which...Oh, God. She replayed the smile, the fleeting glance. Which maybe...  
  
Maybe.  
  
His breath quickened to match hers. She felt his heart beating has he held her, kissed her neck. She flung her arms around him and clung to him.  
  
And then she awakened.  
  
Her father snored softly in the next room. The hall clock ticked. A car passed outside.  
  
Sakura held herself very still, forcing herself not to make a sound. 'How stupid' she thought. She was DYING. What was she doing falling in love? OBVIOUSLY this relationship had no future.  
  
And he was already dead.  
  
That, in it's self, she told herself as she got up to get some medicine for her headache, probably pretty much ruled out a traditional church wedding.  
  
*  
  
*  
  
Author's Note- Ok, VERY short I know. Just thought ya'll would like a little cute stuff. LOL. Whelps review please!!!  
  
~Cobalt-eyedAngel 


	8. Chapter 8

Author's Note- Thanks for the reviews. Getting less and less aren't I? LOL. Does that mean I'm getting worse and worse? Oh well, I'll live. LOL. But I am REALLY glad that all of you like my story!!! It makes me really happy!! ^^ thank youz!  
  
*  
  
* October Chill  
  
Chapter 8  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
Sunday morning.  
  
The last day the museum would be open till spring.  
  
Her last chance to see Syaoran Li.  
  
At breakfast her father said, "Your brother and I think you should stay home today."  
  
Her brother had the sense not to be in the room at the time.  
  
"Why?" Sakura demanded.  
  
"We think maybe you're working a bit too hard, getting a bit over tired."  
  
"No," Sakura said.  
  
"All the same," her father sipped his coffee as though hat had settled that.  
  
"I have to go to work," Sakura said. "It's all I have."  
  
Nonsense," her father said. "You have us. You have your school friends. Take the day off. Relax."  
  
"I NEED to go to work today." (A/N- btw, I don't use italic or bold because if I do, it doesn't show up on ff.net. Don't ask me y.)  
  
Her father frowned. She knew he hated confrontation. HE said, "Surely they can get along with out you."  
  
"Of course they can get along with out me." she said, mentally adding, 'They'll have to get along with out me in the spring.' But she didn't say anything about leaving them short-staffed. Instead she said, "This is something I need to do for myself. To give myself a sense of completeness, of closure." Support group was always good for psychobabble.  
  
"It's just, you get so caught you in it," her father said, but he was weakening, she could tell. "Your brother says that yesterday you came out to the parking lot without a jacket."  
  
"I was talking to somebody and I forgot," she explained. "I wasn't cold until Touya started telling me how cold it was. Please drive me there."  
  
She saw her father glance upward – asking for divine advice or gauging if Sakura's brother was about to come downstairs and demand to know why her orders were being questioned. He sighed, and she knew she had won one more day with Syaoran.  
  
*  
  
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Author's Note- Yes, yes I know, very short. But I have to end it here if I want to start where I want on my next chapter. Which, I am sad to say is the last. Or am I happy to say?....Whelps review! Please and Thank-you!! 


	9. Chapter 9

Author's Note- I'm sad (and happy ) to say this is the last chapter! I'm going to try and make it long, but we'll see. Since this is my last chapter I think some thank-yous are in order!  
  
babybluestarangel – Oh, I LOVE your reviews!! it's only every so often that a reader like u puts so much effort into their reviews! I wasn't sure if I already thanked you for Syaoran's sister's names, but I'll say it again: Thank you! I couldn't have started my fic 'Knock Into Me' without you! Thank-you very much for the 3 reviews  
  
KCix (anonymous) - I hope ur still reading this fic and thanks for the review!  
  
Kuroi Kitty – Thanks for your 2 reviews! I updated just for you LOL.  
  
kiamiawia – I hope it's like nothing u ever read before. That's a good thing, right? XD neways, thanks for ur nice review!  
  
Nightglider (anonymous) – Thanks for ur 3 reviews! I didn't think it seemed that professional, I think it's bad . hehe. I'm glad u caught my mistake in chapter 5, I fixed it right away. blushes a certain...someone...was on my mind when I wrote his name. it probably seems familiar because I got the idea from a book. Whelps thanks!  
  
zucool – Thanks for the review! I'm glad u like the personality of Sakura. I thought it would suit her. Imagine how ur personality would change if u found out u were going to die? shudders I hope I updated before u became a ghost. XD r u a ghost? LOL.  
  
One-Mean-Rabbit – thanks for saying it was good! do u still like it? I hate spelling too! What a pain...  
  
janyta (anonymous) – thanks for syao's sisters! It's always good to have two ppl say the same info just to make sure I'm also really glad u love my story! Thanks for the review!  
  
loveangelli – Syaoran is cute isn't he?! huggles Syao while he grumbles LOL. I'm SO glad u love my story so much! Thanks for ur super nice review!  
  
Kikakai – I know I could've combined chapters, but...oh well, what's done is done! And I'm sorry bout the short chapters, sometimes I can't write a lot. All well. Thanks for ur 2 reviews!  
  
sally (anonymous) – Thanks for ur 2 reviews! They mean a lot to me!  
  
soccergurl23 – thanks for paying me back for my review, that was sweet! U really didn't have to, but I'm glad u did!  
  
DarkJadedEyes – I'm super grateful for ur review! And I'm glad u like my story! It's nothing like you've ever read before? I would hope not cause then that would be stealing another penname's work. LOL I hope this chapter is longer for u! Thanks!  
  
earthy867 – ur partially right, I'm doing something suprising but is it suprising enough? We'll see! Thanks so much for ur review!  
  
dreamschemer – Thanks for ur review! I'm glad u think it's cool. I just wanna say, I think ur penname is cool! I love how it rhymes!  
  
Whelps, that's a big thank you to all my reviewers and I hope I didn't miss anyone! So, let's get this party started and the final song played! And everyone knows that DJ's almost always end with a love song, let's see if I live up to it!  
  
October Chill  
  
By: Cobalt-eyedAngel  
  
Somebody had taken care of both the hearth and the cleaning, Sakura noted guiltily. Had to have been Rika. Poor, overworked, underappreciated Rika. Well, she appreciated her, but the board of trustees didn't.  
  
Sakura hid her winter coat behind the bar, with the jacket she had left there yesterday.  
  
"Syaoran," she called.  
  
"Sakura." He appeared out of nowhere.  
  
"Are you alright?" she asked, which had to be to be the world's dumbest question. He was, after all, two hundred years dead. "What happened yesterday?" she asked.  
  
He shook his head, rubbing his arms as though for warmth. It was freezing in here today. Takashi hadn't been in yet, and this morning there had been a sprinkling of frost on the ground of the common. Sakura gritted her teeth to keep from chattering.  
  
Syaoran leaned against the bar. He had gone from rubbing his arms to resting his hand at his open-necked shirt – to the place where a man's live heart would be. He saw her watching and seemed to suddenly become aware of what he was doing. He lowered his hand. Slowly.  
  
Even clenching her teeth couldn't stop them from chattering now.  
  
He me her eyes. "I remembered how I died."  
  
Did she want to hear this?  
  
"How?" she asked, so softly he might not have even heard but only guessed from the movement of her lips.  
  
He looked down at his hand again. "I was shot." He closed his eyes and shivered. In a moment he regained control and shrugged as though apologizing for his weakness. His hand twitched once he let it drop to his side.  
  
Sakura licked her lips. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She wanted so much to take him into her arms. Her eyes filled with tears.  
  
"Don't cry," he said. "It was a long time ago." He forced a smile. "Even if I'm only now finding out about it."  
  
"Stupid war," she said. She'd never before thought of the American Revolution (A/N- like I said before, srry about the Tomoeda in America thing. I don't know much about the history of Japan, since as I live in America.) as being stupid, but that's just what it was.  
  
Syaoran's eyes grew wide. "There was a war?"  
  
"I thought..." But then she remembered what a loose confederation the colonies had been in 1775, and how slowly news would travel, especially to smaller towns and villages.  
  
Syaoran gave a low whistle. Unconsciously his hand went back to his chest as he paced the room. He glanced up sharply. "With the king?" he asked. "That's what you mean: a war of independence?"  
  
Sakura nodded.  
  
"There was talk...I never thought...Who won?"  
  
"Uh, we did. The colonies."  
  
He nodded, biting his lip. "I don't think this had anything to do with that," he said.  
  
"You weren't a solider?"  
  
"Lord, no!"  
  
"Not involved in politics?"  
  
He shook his head.  
  
"What about that man Tsukumara you mentioned yesterday?"  
  
"I don't think he was the one."  
  
She waited for him to say something else.  
  
"I remember...Xiefia and I came here after delivering the horse." He paused, looking at the door. "I...opened the door..." he shuddered. Turned away. "There was a man. Sitting..." – he indicated a specific spot – "here. I remember a gun..." He was clutching his heart; his breathing loud and ragged. "The door opened. I...The door opened – "  
  
Someone kicked in the door.  
  
Sakura took in a breath halfway between a gasp and a scream.  
  
"Sorry," Rika said. Rika was lugging in her supplies for the day's snickerdoodles and cider. "Didn't mean to scare you."  
  
Now Sakura had HER hand to HER heart. There was no sign of Syaoran. "Sorry about yesterday," she managed to say. "I forgot."  
  
"That's okay," Rika said, too polite to ask how anybody could possibly forget something like putting out the fire. "Except..."  
  
"What?" Sakura pulled her shawl tighter, but that didn't stop the shivering. "Rika?"  
  
"Kohako(remember? Her boss) was making the rounds with me."  
  
Sakura winced. "Is he mad?"  
  
From Rika's expression, MAD didn't begin to cover it. "He wants you to work at the log cabin with Chiharu. Tomoyo will be there."  
  
"The log cabin!" Sakura cried. She hated that. Spinning, she kept getting flax up her nose, she wasn't good enough at weaving to keep from smacking the back of her hand on the loom. Besides, it was a two-person demonstration and she wouldn't have a minute to herself. "Rika!"  
  
"Sorry." Not that it was her fault. "Kohako said..."  
  
"Kohako said WHAT?" she demanded when Rika hesitated.  
  
Rika has obviously reconsidered, and he shrugged. "Well, you know Kohako. Nothing important."  
  
"Kohako said what?"  
  
Rika shrugged again and wouldn't meet Sakura's eyes. "Tomoyo's more reliable. And Chiharu will keep you on your toes at the log cabin. Sorry."  
  
Sakura stomped out of the tavern, never pausing for her jacket or coat.  
  
Tomoyo, just coming up the path, smiled apologetically, then said, "My gosh, Sakura! Don't you have a coat? It's supposed to snow today."  
  
Sakura ignored her, though it was hardly Tomoyo's fault. Damn Kohako. Today was the last day before break. Damn it. For once she wanted to scream out her news: 'I'm dying, Dammit! Humor me!'  
  
The morning dragged on forever. She planned to go someplace where she could be alone during her lunch break – one of the unattended displays – to talk to Syaoran on last time. And that was all that kept her going. She wouldn't let herself consider the possibility that he might be able to come to her only in the tavern.  
  
Her loom thumped noisily, counterpoint to the whirring of Chiharu's spinning wheel. If she could have ripped her throbbing head off her body, she would have. Her hands shook as she poured three pills into her hand – only one more than she was supposed to take – and swallowed them without water.  
  
When she couldn't get that damn childproof cap on, she flung it across the room. Chiharu watched her anxiously, but Sakura pretended not to notice. Neither spoke, except to the tourists.  
  
Four hours till lunch.  
  
Three and a half hours.  
  
Three hours and twenty minutes.  
  
Three hours.  
  
Kohako came in at two hours and forty-five minutes while she was trying to demonstrate, for a family who didn't speak Japanese, how to card wool. He gave her one of his baleful looks, but he wasn't going to say anything in front of visitors.  
  
After about two minutes of that, Sakura threw the shuttle across the room, called Kohako a flatulent asshole, and strode out of the log cabin.  
  
She left him to explain THAT to the family and went to the Tiluke meetinghouse, the closest building that didn't have a regular attendant.  
  
"Syaoran!" she called. She was shaking, afraid he couldn't hear her call, except in the tavern.  
  
But, "Yes," he said. He was sitting on the back of one of the benches in the men's half of the room, his feet up on the pew behind.  
  
She started to run up the aisle from him, then remembered at the last moment. She stopped, helpless, and sank to her knees and began to cry.  
  
"Sakura." He scrambled down and rushed to her, and caught himself just in time, a hand upraised just short of brushing the tear-dampened hair from her face.  
  
"This is the last day," she said between sobs. "The museum closes in a few hours, and it won't open again until spring, and I won't be able to come here, and you won't be able to come out." Miserable, she finished, "I'll never last through the winter."  
  
He crouched before her. "Oh, Sakura," he sighed. "You will."  
  
She realized he thought she was speaking figuratively. "I'm dying," she said. Did they know about cancer in the 1700's? They might well have called it something else. "I have a disease of the brain. That's probably" – she wasn't even sure how she meant this – "why I can see you."  
  
He reached for her, unable to hold her but sending icicles through her shoulder where his hand had passed through. "Sakura," he said. "I'm so sorry."  
  
"I need to know," she said, because other wise – ha! – the curiosity would kill her. No, it was more than curiosity; it was wanting the world to be an orderly place. She asked, "Who shot you?"  
  
Syaoran sighed. "A jealous husband."  
  
Well, that was orderly, even if not quite the order she had envisioned. Everything fell into place. The world made sense after all. It was her turn to say, "Oh, Syaoran, I'm sorry."  
  
He had his arms wrapped tightly around himself. "You don't understand," he said. "I was mistaken for someone else. I was killed by mistake."  
  
Very slowly, very carefully, Sakura put her arms around him. It was like being in a lake, like trying to hold on to a cold current. For a few seconds, they managed it. Then her hand slipped through his neck, and his through her back, and they were left sitting on their heels, both of them shivering.  
  
Behind her, her father's voice said, "Jeez, 'Kura."  
  
"See why I called you?" she heard Kohako say. "She's been like this all weekend – talking to herself, leaving fires unattended, popping pills."  
  
"Don't you see him?" Sakura asked them, looking directly at Syaoran.  
  
"Sakura, it's all right," her father said. He took her by the shoulders and turned her around. "It's probably just the medicine. We'll get your medications balanced properly –"  
  
Sakura craned around and saw that Syaoran was gone. "Syaoran!" she called. "Come back!"  
  
Her father was struggling out of his coat, and he got it around her shoulders. "It's her medication." He explained to Kohako. "She's under a doctor's care, but there must be something wrong with the mix she's taking..." He was trying to rub warmth into Sakura's hands. "Here" – he got her to her feet – "all right now?"  
  
"Yes," she said. Then pushed her father into Kohako, and she fled, her father's coat falling to the floor behind her.  
  
"Sakura!" she heard her father yell.  
  
She ran across the commons, past the Tiluke Spa Tavern, into the woods behind – the woods slated for great things by the board of trustees, things she knew she would never see.  
  
The trees into the woods were thick enough to hide her, even with most of the leaves already on the ground. Sakura fought through the underbrush, slid down a slope of rocks and tree stumps, and followed a frozen stream ever deeper into the woods.  
  
'I'll cross the stream,' she thought, but of course the ice was just a thin crust in October, and she went right through, so that she slipped and landed sitting in the icy water. She picked herself up and fled farther into the woods until she lost all sense of time and direction. Her wet skirt stiffened frostily, chafing against her legs.  
  
"Sakura!" She heard off and on. Her father. Tomoyo. Strangers on bullhorns. But they were faint, distant.  
  
Still, she kept running, to put more distance between them. Her plan was to wait until night, then return to the tavern, hoping they'd give up before she would.  
  
Once she got warm, once she rested, she'd be able to think what to do next. She tripped and fell to her knees and stayed there, her teeth chattering. She'd get up as soon as she got enough energy.  
  
But she was too tired, and she put her head down on a pile of dry leaves. She hadn't smelled leaves – since she'd been seven or eight. She'd forgotten how wonderful they smelled. She closed her eyes, just for a minute, just to get her strength back.  
  
Even though her eye lids were closed, she could still see the bright cinnamon and amber colored leaves. She loved that color, it was like something else. An image of a pair of intense amber eyes looked at her lovingly.  
  
"Sakura," she heard, gentle but insistent whisper near her ear, and she groaned. "Sakura, you have to go back, before it's too late."  
  
"It's too late already," she whispered back. "I can't move. I'm frozen to the ground."  
  
Hands grasped her shoulders, strong, solid hands that forced her to sit up, that held her close and shot electricity over her body and running endlessly through her heart.  
  
She knew who it was, the man she had been dreaming about. The man's arms she had been longing and yearning to hold her. The arms that rocked her until finally, finally, she was warm again.  
  
They didn't find her body till spring.  
  
She was smiling.  
  
Author's Note- I'm finished. Hope it was good, and u all got the meaning at the end. PLEASE R&R!!! I luv u sooooooo much if you do!! I hope it was good, and a little sad. So review, I except anything but flames for no reason. If they're flames for a good cause it's alright. LOL  
  
LOOKIE HERE (lol)  
  
... Ok, the hands? Syaoran's of course! :] The reason he was able to go to the after world with Sakura? Because he found out how he died. So they were able to live happily together! :D  
  
Cobalt-eyedAngel 


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